Indira Gandhi: biography of this historical Indian politics

The surname Gandhi is instinctively associated with India, but not only by Mahatma, also by Indira Gandhi politics.

We will dedicate these lines to knowing better the life of this important personality through a biography of Indira Gandhi. We will learn about his most important achievements and the contributions that during his tenure were made in the country where he ruled for more than a decade, in addition to holding other positions.

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Brief biography of Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad, in 1917, with the name of Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. She came from a family of Pandit tradition in Kashmir. Her father, named Jawaharlal Nehru, was an activist in circles promoting India's independence from the She was the British crown and thanks to this work she reached the front line of politics, becoming the Prime Minister of the country.

In fact, even to this day, she holds the record of the longest-serving Prime Minister in India, as she spent almost 17 years

, first while the country was under British rule and later when it was constituted as an independent republic. All this activity caused Indira Gandhi to spend little time with her father, so that almost all of her childhood was lived only in the company of her mother, Kamala Nehru.

But the situation of her mother was not easy at all, as she suffered from very delicate health and in fact she would die of tuberculosis, while Indira Gandhi was still very young, in 1936. Her contact with her father being practically null, and with her mother practically bedridden due to the affections she suffered, her education was carried out through tutors. She attended different institutions until completing primary and secondary education.

She later enrolled in the Santiniketan institution, which would later give rise to the Visva-Bharati University. But the constant illnesses of her mother made him drop out of school soon after. After the death of her mother, she resumed her training, this time at the University of Oxford, in the discipline of history. This stage in Europe was marked by health problems. She frequently traveled to Switzerland for treatment.

Return to India and beginning of political career

In 1941, in the middle of World War II, Indira Gandhi was forced to return to India, even without being able to complete her career. Although it is true that Oxford issued him an honorary degree, some time after it. Her years in England, in addition to her own training, allowed her to meet Feroze Gandhi, who would become her husband. Despite her notable last name, she was not related to Mahatma. From this marriage two children, Rajiv and Sanjay, would be born in the coming years.

Once in India, Indira Gandhi resumed contact with her father, who by then already held the position of Prime Minister, and she began to work as a collaborator in his cabinet. This allowed her to fully approach the world of first level politics, which would be the field in which she would develop her professional activity from then on. A few years later, she reached the position of president of Congress.

Indira's father died in 1964, and by then, she was chosen as one of the components of the Council of States, the Rajya Sabha, under the command of Lal Bahadur, Shastri, the Prime Minister. Under this government, she also held the position of Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Upon the death of the party leader, Indira Gandhi was the successor to lead said formation.

Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister

It was in 1966 when Indira Gandhi reached the highest level of power in India, as Prime Minister. Although some party leaders expected her to behave as a weak figure due to the prejudices existing at that time for the fact that she was a woman, Indira soon demonstrated that she had the necessary skills to carry out the position of her without being carried away by those who wanted to exert influence on her.

Throughout this first term, he had to make really tough decisions. Some of her supposed the fragmentation of her own party, but others went far beyond her, since she had to lead the liberation of Bangladesh, which meant starting an armed conflict with Pakistan. These facts changed any previous opinion that could be had about her, and now she is considered an absolutely consolidated leader.

For the next term, in 1971, Indira Gandhi the elimination of poverty in India was proposed, a problem that plagued the nation. This policy led to the support of large population groups living in a disadvantaged situation. In this mandate the war against Pakistan mentioned above also took place. The victory over it gave him great popularity.

But it was a difficult economic time for India. Inflation increased more and more and in 1973 came the oil crisis, which further aggravated the situation. This gave wings to the opposition, which was getting stronger and stronger.

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Scandal and state of emergency

In 1975, a ruling concluded that Indira Gandhi had performed malpractice in some of her actions during her government to benefit in electoral campaigns. This supposed the dismissal of her in the seat that she possessed, but she did not abandon the position of Prime Minister, because As she was part of the Rajya Sabha, she could continue to hold that position, according to the Constitution of India.

This decision was controversial and protests were generated in the street where many citizens expressed their discomfort about it, generating a wave of disturbances. Indira Gandhi's decision to face the situation was to declare a state of emergency. She started a campaign of mass arrests on the violent protesters.

The situation worsened and curfews began, the restriction of freedoms and even a censorship procedure in certain publications that did not correspond to the interests of the government. At the same time, Indira Gandhi remodeled her government to ensure that her cabinet consisted only of people loyal to her. The law was also modified so as not to need Parliament to legislate.

To this accumulation of powers was added the presence of her son, Sanjay Ghandi, as a prominent figure in the government, without having a specific position within it. The fact that her own son, without an elected position, had so much power, was another of the reasons that aggravated the growing unpopularity of Indira Gandhi.

Elections and exit from government

In 1977, Indira Gandhi decided to call elections. The scandal in which she had been involved, added to the declaration of the state of emergency, extended for almost two years, had left her image very weakened. However, she considered that she still had enough support to revalidate her position.

In her own party there were divisions around the drift that was taking power in India due to Indira Gandhi's way of governing. When the elections arrived, her party suffered a resounding defeat, causing even Indira herself to lose her seat. She had to be through another constituency, and in 1978, when she returned to the camera.

She was embroiled in a new scandal in which she was accused of having conspired to assassinate opposition leaders while the state of emergency lasted. She was expelled from Congress. But the ruling party, the Janata Union, began to unravel due to a series of internal disputes among the coalition members. A new government was formed thanks to the support of Gandhi, in exchange for the withdrawal of the charges towards her and hers son.

Return to power and murder

In the 1980 elections, Indira Gandhi managed to return to power, again achieving the post of Prime Minister of India. Her son Sanjay died shortly after during a plane crash. This fact caused that Indira convinced to the other son of her, Rajiv, to enter the cabinet of her, because she only wanted people of the most absolute confidence of her, and nobody better than her own children of her.

During this legislature, Indira Gandhi's policy was marked by the problems derived from the demands of the Sikh people, that it looked for the independence of the region of Panjab to obtain thus a confessional State. Indira's response was that of repression, culminating in the so-called Operation Blue Star, which was a military incursion into a Sikh temple.

She unceremoniously crushed all resistance, killing many civilians in the process. The operation was highly controversial, and many accused Indira Gandhi of using it to promote herself politically for the next legislature.

On October 30, 1984, Gandhi delivered a speech in which she literally said that she would be proud to die serving her country. Just one day later two of her bodyguards, of Sikh confession, murdered Indira Gandhi, in retaliation for Operation Blue Star. She was shot 31 times.

Bibliographic references:

• Jayakar, P. (1992). Indira Gandhi: A Biography. Penguin Books.
• Malhotra, I. (2014). Indira Gandhi: A personal and political biography. Rajkamal Electric Press.
• Malik, Y.K. (1987). Indira Gandhi: Personality, political power and party politics. Journal of Asian and African Studies.